Welfare to Work issues for church agencies

We at Vinnies have marked the day with a sad heart. The new laws (Welfare to Work) will see many people with disabilities, single mothers and their children pushed into greater poverty and indignity. Our members feel a deep sense of compassion for people who will suffer under these new laws. We will stand with them in their financial distress.

UnitingCare -Uniting Church

UnitingCare is the community service network of the Uniting Church. It is one of Australia’s largest non-government providers of community services, with 400 community service agencies located across every State and Territory, providing services to 1.8 million Australians each year. UnitingCare employs 35,000 staff and 24,000 volunteers nationally and provides services to children, young people and families, people with disabilities, and older Australians, in urban, rural and remote communities. UnitingCare Australia is committed to values based advocacy, speaking with and on behalf of those who are the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, for the common good. UnitingCare is a signatory to the national community sector Compliance Statement. It is our experience that people want to work, and we are concerned that the government is implementing a compliance-based framework rather than a strengths-based one. We are concerned about the very harsh 8-week no payment penalty. We believe that this penalty is too severe and will push people further away from gaining the skills they need to find and keep a job. We cannot see how withholding essential support payments to vulnerable people and families will motivate or assist them into work. This approach does not ft with our extensive experience across Australia working with vulnerable people. While the community and welfare sector is being asked to provide financial case management in the event of an 8-week no payment penalty, the requisite funds, training, staff and general capacity and resources available to carry out case management are just not adequate. We believe that the Government should abolish the maximum 8 week no payment penalty so that disadvantaged Australians are encouraged to re-engage but retain basic income support. We support the government’s goal to move people off

welfare and into work, but wish to see this happen in a sustainable way that ensures that people are able to acquire the skills and access the services they need to get a job and then to keep it over the long term.

Lin Hatfeld Dodds
National Director
UnitingCare Australia

St. Vincent de Paul Society-Catholic Church

1 July marks the day on which new Welfare to Work legislation is implemented. We at Vinnies have marked the day with a sad heart. The new laws will see many people with disabilities and single mothers and their children pushed into greater poverty and indignity. Our members feel a deep sense of compassion for people who will suffer under these new laws. We will stand with them in their financial distress as well as their sense of despair. We cannot understand why the people we assist should be further oppressed. The point of good government is to address our nation’s problems, not create new ones. We have consistently voiced our support for policies that enable people to move from welfare to work. We oppose, however, any moves that drive vulnerable people from one social security benefit to a lower benefit and then into jobs that actually keep them in poverty. To oppose sole parents and people with disabilities to the threat of 8 weeks payment suspension is an example of the governments ‘sticks rather than carrots’ approach. To then refer some of these victims of breaching to charities is a further means of humiliating them, rather than empowering them. We will not participate in this ill-conceived program. We anticipate that our members will see a significant increase in the number of people seeking assistance due to the combination of these Welfare Laws and the IR Laws. We will always provide what charitable assistance we can. What these people deserve, however, is justice rather than charity.

Dr. John Falzon
National Council CEO
St. Vincent de Paul

Anglicare Australia-Anglican Church

Anglicare Australia and its member agencies are concerned that Welfare to Work changes currently being implemented by the Federal Government will further disadvantage people already experiencing trauma, relationship breakdowns, unemployment and long term health and disability issues. In addition, a new compliance and penalty regime will be implemented for people on payments including a maximum eight week no payment penalty. Anglicare Australia supports the goal of moving people back into the workforce but is concerned that, when people already face so many obstacles in finding and staying in jobs and who also suffer major health and disability issues, they can be further punished by these changes. Not only will people get less money, but they will also be forced to go cap in hand to welfare agencies. The expectation that welfare agencies will wield a big stick to already vulnerable and disadvantaged people is not the appropriate way to encourage them into the workforce.

Ray Cleary
Chair
Anglicare Australia

Hillsong Emerge - Hillsong Church

Hillsong Emerge is a not-for-profit charity that has been providing essential community services to some of the most vulnerable and marginalised in our communities for more than 20 years. For over 17 years, we have been an emergency assistance provider in areas including Blacktown, Mount Druitt and St Marys helping those in crisis. We have also been a Personal Support Provider (PSP) in those areas since 2002.

We were recently invited by Centrelink to be on a register for referrals, similar to our arrangements with other agencies. We see this as an extension of services that we currently operate, in line with our ongoing commitment to helping people wherever need arises.

With the introduction of the government’s Welfare to Work changes, we believe that it’s essential that those affected are properly supported.

Leigh Coleman
CEO- Hillsong Emerge

The national community sector Compliance Statement referred to in the UnitingCare statement is a policy produced by the Australian Council of Social Services which summarises best practice in the area of client care and compliance with welfare laws. It can be found on its website: www.acoss.org.au

[South Sydney Herald August 2006]